Turns 1-7
Westport is defended by a unit of fully entrenched US Recruits assisted by an AT gun also fully entrenched.
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| Figure 1 - Westport |
The Recruits efficiency drop from 10 (100) to 4 (36) and its entrenchment from 10 to 8 due to preparatory artillery barrages from FA/B Coy (10/1), DD 423 (5/0) and CA 32 (12/0) over the first two turns. They also lose at least 4 HP (I don't remember if they repaired during turn 1).
They will lose 4 HP, 10/100 efficiency and 7/10 entrenchment from the Engineer's attack but that is par for the course. What I'd like to draw your attention is the Engineer's attack value of 13. Slightly higher than the Infantry's at 12, that's the terrain's cover rating at work (60% for this Tropical Village).
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| Figure 2 - Safe haven |
1/B Coy attacks the Recruits forcing them to retreat leaving Westport open for 1/B Coy's advance which triggers the "Safe Haven" event in the same turn. This translates into $50 reward for the VP, 10 L/CP and two new units aboard troopships in the Southwest corner of the map: a core US Infantry (1/C Coy) and an auxiliary US Heavy Infantry (X/B Coy (Hvy)). It also triggers Sergeant McNeil at the start of turn #3 who is assigned to 1/B Coy.
A cautious advance by DD 423 Gleaves at the beginning of turn #3 reveals the first Red Team destroyer (also a Gleaves-class ship) and kicks-off a three-turn naval engagement.
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| Figure 3 - First OPFOR DD |
The initial position of CA 32 and X/DD 1 on turn #3 is indicated by the ghostly images on the bottom left corner. The RT destroyer (DD) is depicted after taking fire from the GT. All Green Team ships remained stationary throughout the engagement even though that benefits the OPFOR's accuracy. It also helps Green Team's accuracy but more importantly the position taken blocks all torpedo lines of fire against our cruiser.
The blue-bordered inserts depict DD 423 Gleaves' prognostics while the yellow/gold ones pertain to CA 32 New Orleans while the auxiliary destroyer's guns remained silent during this fight.
I made a mistake with DD 423's prognostic insert for turn #5: the one included is prior to CA 32's fire. When DD 423 actually fires the RT DD is at 2 HP, not 6 HP.
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| Figure 4 - OPFOR Paratroopers |
While the Navy was thus occupied the Army dispatched the surviving US Recruits, the Anti-Tank Gun and an under strength (7 HP) Paratrooper that believed it was a good idea to drop in on turn #5. By this time Westport was already providing 10 supply allowing the deployment of both 1/A Coy and Cav/A Coy who took the opportunity to welcome the hapless Paras.
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| Figure 5 - Reinforcements |
Sinking the RT's DD triggers the "Reinforcements" event at the start of turn #7. These reinforcements consist of one Gleaves-class DD (DesRon X DD 2), two US Marines (/USMC/A and /B Coy) and two Supply Ships TM (AX Supply Ship 1 and 2), auxiliaries one and all.
Taking our Drill Instructor's advice to carefully plan our invasion of Eastern Island probably a little too far... this is an example of the movement options for three of the thirteen units on the GT's roster.
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| Figure 6 - D-Day planning |
The numbered lines depict maximum movement ranges for turns #7 (1) to #11 (4) and the colors indicate which unit it applies. The letters indicate individual landing sites while the tiles borders differentiate beaches from other terrain. The red arrows highlight tiles that can be attacked by the unit in the village, because there's always a unit in a village "and it costs me a fortune replacing the closet doors".
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| Figure 7 - More D-Day planning |
With this information I built a table in MS Access pairing units with landing sites, filled in the earliest turn in which the unit could land, set a timetable for the invasion and plotted the paths for the units. Red indicates the first wave who will be landing on turn #9, yellow for the second wave landing on turn #11 (allowing the first wave to recover full efficiency during turn #10) and green for the third and final wave landing on turn #13.
"Major, there's a nice beach right over here, why are we going all the way over there?"
"Captain, someday you might have to decide on these things yourself so pay attention. Every time the enemy offers you a nice and easy option you better look carefully for traps. That nice beach only has one exit, there's a jungle behind it you don't want to cross and why is there a dead end road going into it? Some bunker perhaps? And you better remember the enemy might have artillery covering those beaches. You'll want to be able to hit those guns very, very quickly before they do too much damage to you."
Now, a true "grognard" would also map out what the units would (probably) do in the three or five turns after landing but I'm not a true "grognard". I only went as far as:
a) landing the M3 Stuarts on the near beach (Oboe) because the terrain there is open, they will be alone for the first four turns and the core M3 Stuart will be in a position to hit the (yet unrevealed) RT artillery in the hills beyond the jungle patch;
b) landing the Engineers on the edges of the far beach (Uncle) with the core Eng/A Coy nearest the village so it will be ready to attack it (then proceeding towards the near bunker or East Isle Ville) and the auxiliary poised to attack the (yet unrevealed) bunker on the East coast;
c) landing both artillery units on the third wave so they will be shielded from the enemy.
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